BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1770
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          Date of Hearing:  April 27, 2010

                           ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
                                  Mike Feuer, Chair
                  AB 1770 (Galgiani) - As Amended: February 9, 2010

                              As Proposed to be Amended

           SUBJECT  :  STANISLAUS COUNTY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FUNDING: FEES

           KEY ISSUE  :  IN ORDER TO COMBAT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN STANISLAUS  
          COUNTY, SHOULD SPECIFIED FEES BE RAISED TO SUPPORT DOMESTIC  
          VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION PROGRAMS IN THAT COUNTY,  
          VERY SIMILAR TO A BILL OF STATEWIDE APPLICATION THAT PASSED THIS  
          COMMITTEE LAST MONTH? 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  As currently in print this bill is keyed  
          non-fiscal.

                                      SYNOPSIS
          
          Over the last decade, the Legislature has authorized, on a pilot  
          basis, four counties to increase fees for marriage licenses and  
          for marriage and birth certificates and death records to fund  
          governmental oversight and coordination of domestic violence  
          prevention, intervention, and prosecution programs.  Many of  
          these programs have been highly successful in combating domestic  
          violence and the Legislature has, after reviewing program  
          reports required as a condition of the pilots, made the programs  
          in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and the City of Berkeley  
          permanent.  This Committee recently passed AB 1883 (Evans),  
          which expands these successful programs statewide by giving all  
          counties, on a pilot basis, the ability to raise fees for  
          certified copies of marriage and birth certificates and death  
          records by up to four dollars in order to fund governmental  
          oversight and coordination of domestic violence prevention,  
          intervention, and services to victims and their families.  This  
          bill allows the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors to create  
          a very similar program in that county.  

          The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association opposes the bill,  
          arguing that the fee increase sought by the bill is, in  
          actuality, a tax.  The California Supreme Court in Sinclair  
          Paints v. Board of Equalization (1997) 15 Cal.4th 866 set forth  
          a two-prong test to determine whether a particular increase in  








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          revenue is a fee or a tax.  Under that test a fee cannot exceed  
          the reasonable cost of providing the services necessary for  
          which the fee is charged, and must not be levied for an  
          unrelated revenue purpose.  The author counters that the fee  
          proposed by this bill satisfies both prongs of the fee test.

           SUMMARY  :  Authorizes, as a pilot program, the Stanislaus County  
          Boards of Supervisors to increase specified fees to fund  
          domestic violence prevention programs and direct services.   
          Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Authorizes the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, upon  
            making specified findings and declarations, to increase the  
            fees for certified copies of marriage and birth certificates,  
            and death records by up to $2, with further increases  
            permitted annually based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), as  
            specified.  Directs that the fees be deposited into a special  
            fund to be used for governmental oversight and coordination of  
            domestic violence and family violence prevention,  
            intervention, and prosecution efforts.

          2)Requires that the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, if  
            it elects to increase fees as specified in this bill, must  
            submit to the Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees a  
            report by July 1, 2014 regarding the funds received, the  
            activities funded and the outcomes of those activities.

          3)Sunsets the program on January 1, 2016.
           
          EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Authorizes the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, and the  
            Berkeley City Council, upon making specified findings and  
            declarations, to increase the fees for marriage licenses and  
            confidential marriage licenses, as well as certified copies of  
            marriage, birth, and death certificates, by up to $2, with  
            further increases permitted on an annual basis, based on the  
            CPI.  Directs that the fees be deposited into a special fund  
            to be used for governmental oversight and coordination of  
            domestic violence and family violence prevention,  
            intervention, and prosecution efforts.  (Government Code  
            Section 26840.10; Health and Safety Code Sections 103627,  
            103627.5; Welfare and Institutions Code Section 18309.)

          2)Authorizes a $4 fee (subject to CPI increases) for certified  








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            copies of marriage certificates, birth certificates, and death  
            records to provide funding for governmental oversight and  
            coordination of domestic violence prevention, intervention,  
            and prosecution efforts in the Contra Costa County.  (Health  
            and Safety Code Section 103626; Welfare and Institutions Code  
            Section 18308.)

          3)Authorizes the Solano County Board of Supervisors, upon making  
            findings and declarations of the need for governmental  
            oversight and coordination of domestic violence agencies, to  
            increase fees for marriage licenses, confidential marriage  
            licenses, and certified copies of marriage certificates, fetal  
            death records, and death records by up to $2, until January 1,  
            2011.  (Government Code Section 26840.11; Health and Safety  
            Code Section 103628; Welfare and Institutions Code Section  
            18309.5.)

          4)Authorizes the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, upon making  
            findings and declarations of the need for governmental  
            oversight and coordination of domestic violence agencies, to  
            increase fees for marriage licenses, confidential marriage  
            licenses, and certified copies of marriage certificates, fetal  
            death records, and death records by up to $2, until January 1,  
            2015.  (Government Code Section 26840.12; Health and Safety  
            Code Section 103628.2; Welfare and Institutions Code Section  
            18309.6.)

           COMMENTS  :  Over the last decade, the Legislature has authorized,  
          on a pilot basis, four counties to increase fees for marriage  
          licenses and for marriage, birth and death certificates to fund  
          governmental oversight and coordination of domestic violence  
          prevention, intervention, and prosecution programs.  These  
          programs have been highly successful and have led to the  
          creation of a family justice center in Alameda County, a youth  
          intervention program in the City of Berkeley and significantly  
          greater coordination of services in Contra Costa County.  As a  
          result of their successes, the Legislature, after reviewing  
          program reports required as a condition of the pilots, made the  
          programs in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties and the City of  
          Berkeley permanent.  This Committee recently passed AB 1883  
          (Evans), which expands these successful programs statewide by  
          giving all counties, on a pilot basis, the ability to raise fees  
          for certified copies of marriage and birth certificates and  
          death records by up to $4 in order to fund governmental  
          oversight and coordination of domestic violence prevention and  








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          intervention, as well as services to victims and their families.

          This bill, sponsored by the Stanislaus County Board of  
          Supervisors, seeks to allow Stanislaus County to operate a  
          similar program by giving the Board of Supervisors, on a pilot  
          basis, the ability to raise fees for certified copies of  
          marriage and birth certificates and death records by up to $2 in  
          order to fund governmental oversight and coordination of  
          domestic violence prevention, intervention.  The fee would  
          increase annually based on the CPI.

          In support of the bill, the author writes:

               Stanislaus County experiences a 25% greater rate of  
               domestic violence calls than the state average and a  
               50% higher rate for child welfare referrals.  In spite  
               of the efforts of law enforcement and the judicial  
               system, violent crimes in Stanislaus County continue  
               to escalate.  More than 2,000 elders reported being  
               abused and more than 3,000 domestic violence calls  
               were received by law enforcement in 2009.  In  
               addition, more than 150 cases of sexual assault were  
               reported and over 10,000 cases were referred through  
               child welfare services annually . . . .

               The Stanislaus Family Justice Center (SFJC) will offer  
               a dynamic and proven new approach by housing a  
               multidisciplinary team of professionals under one  
               roof.  This approach will reduce the number of times  
               victims have to retell their story and will greatly  
               decrease the number of places they have to travel to  
               for assistance.  This approach is similar to Family  
               Justice Centers operating in San Diego, Alameda County  
               and Contra Costa County.

           Devastating Effects of Domestic Violence on Children and  
          Families  :  Domestic violence is a serious criminal justice and  
          public health problem most often perpetrated against women.   
          (Extent, Nature and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence:  
          Findings from the National Violence against Women Survey, U.S.  
          Department of Justice (2001).)  Prevalence of domestic violence  
          at the national level ranges from 960,000 to three million women  
          each year who are physically abused by their husbands or  
          boyfriends.  While the numbers are staggering, they only include  
          those cases of reported domestic violence.  In fact, according  








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          to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey of women's health, nearly 31%  
          of American women report being physically or sexually abused by  
          a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives.  (Health  
          Concerns Across a Woman's Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women's  
          Health, The Commonwealth Fund (May 1999).)

          Domestic violence continues to be a significant problem in  
          California.  In 2005, the Attorney General's Task Force on  
          Domestic Violence reported that:

               The health consequences of physical and psychological  
               domestic violence can be significant and long lasting,  
               for both victims and their children. . . . A study by  
               the California Department of Health Services of  
               women's health issues found that nearly six percent of  
               women, or about 620,000 women per year, experienced  
               violence or physical abuse by their intimate partners.  
                Women living in households where children are present  
               experienced domestic violence at much higher rates  
               than women living in households without children:   
               domestic violence occurred in more than 436,000  
               households per year in which children were present,  
               potentially exposing approximately 916,000 children to  
               violence in their homes every year.

          (Report to the California Attorney General from the Task Force  
          on Local Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence, Keeping  
          the Promise:  Victim Safety and Batterer Accountability (June  
          2005) (footnotes omitted).)  

          That report discovered numerous significant and troubling  
          problems in the implementation of statutory directives aimed at  
          preventing domestic violence, including failing to enter  
          restraining orders into CLETS (California Law Enforcement  
          Telecommunications System) and failing to ensure that batterers  
          attend mandated treatment programs.  

           Successful Pilots Programs to Combat Domestic Violence Made  
          Permanent  :  While initially begun as pilots, the programs in  
          Alameda and Contra Costa County and the City of Berkeley have  
          now been made permanent.  In support of making those programs  
          permanent, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors wrote that  
          the funds from the fee increases have played a vital role in  
          funding the coordination costs and have "changed the way systems  
          and service providers are delivering essential and critical  








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          services to victims of domestic violence and their children."   
          The Board noted that domestic violence deaths in the county  
          dropped from 26 in 2001 to 3 in 2006, with a goal of zero deaths  
          going forward.     

          The Alameda County District Attorney's Office agreed, stating  
          that as a result of the Family Justice Center in the county  
          built, in part, with funds provided by the fee increases, "there  
          is a new (or re-newed) confidence on the part of Victims that  
          the legal systems work for them and that there are resources and  
          service providers who will work together to protect, support and  
          empower them and their children to have lives free of  
          interpersonal violence."

          The Berkeley City Council told the Legislature that it uses  
          these funds for a youth intervention in the schools to promote  
          healthy relationships and prevent domestic violence, modeled  
          after "extremely successful peer health educator programs."

          As a result of the increased funding, Contra Costa County has  
          been able to, among other things, increase funding for a  
          coordinated system and for individual agencies; increase  
          systemwide accountability; increase batterer accountability; and  
          increase protections for victims and children.  Prior to the fee  
          increase, individual agencies had not worked together smoothly,  
          but the funding increase has permitted the county to operate an  
          efficient and coordinated system.

           This Bill Will Allow Stanislaus County to Fund a Family Justice  
          Center  :  This bill essentially establishes the same program in  
          Stanislaus County that began in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano  
          and Sonoma Counties.  Stanislaus County intends to use the fees  
          generated as the result of this bill to fund a family justice  
          center, similar to the one operated in Alameda County.

           Is This Bill Necessary?   In prior years, individual counties  
          have sought individual approval for fee increases to fund  
          domestic violence prevention efforts.  Rather than continue this  
          piecemeal approach, this Committee recently passed out AB 1883  
          (Evans), which allows all county boards of supervisors, upon  
          making specified findings and declaration on the need for more  
          funding to combat domestic violence, to increase the fees for  
          certified copies of marriage and birth certificates, and death  
          records by up to $4.  If a county elects to increase these fees,  
          half of the fees must be used for governmental oversight and  








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          coordination of domestic violence and family violence  
          prevention, intervention, and prosecution efforts.  The other  
          half of the fees must be provided to nonprofit, community-based  
          organizations that serve victims of domestic violence and their  
          families, including but not limited to organizations that serve  
          underserved communities.  In order to ensure the funding for  
          community-based organizations is used as effectively as  
          possible, the bill requires that this funding be awarded to  
          local programs through a competitive process that begins with a  
          request for proposals.

          Given AB 1883, it may be that this bill is not entirely  
          necessary.  Assuming AB 1883 becomes law, the Stanislaus County  
          Board of Supervisors could, under that bill, approve a fee  
          increase of up to $4 (which could easily be limited to the $2  
          fee increase sought by this bill) to fund domestic violence  
          prevention and intervention efforts, including a family justice  
          center, although half of the funds would have to be awarded to  
          community-based organizations through a competitive grant  
          process not contemplated by this bill.

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :  In support of the bill, the Stanislaus  
          County Board of Supervisors writes that the "existence and  
          sustainability of the Family Justice Center fulfills the  
          Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors' priority of "A safe  
          community, effective partnerships and efficient delivery of  
          public services."  According to the Board, the county has  
          already secured $600,000 from private sources, is requesting  
          $300,000 in federal funding and believes that the fee increase  
          in this bill is necessary to partially fund the operations and  
          services of the family justice center.

           ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION  :  In opposition, the Howard Jarvis  
          Taxpayers Association writes:

               As currently drafted, AB 1770 would authorize local  
               government violations of the California Constitution.   
                [The fee increase in this bill] is a tax for a  
               special purpose and therefore must require a  
               two-thirds vote by local voters to be enacted.  This  
               extension cannot be termed a fee since there is  
               absolutely no nexus between certified certificates of  
               the type mentioned in this bill, and domestic violence  
               prevention.









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          While a tax does indeed require a 2/3rds vote of the Legislature  
          or of local voters, a bona fide regulatory fee does not.  The  
          California Supreme Court laid out the distinction between a fee  
          and a tax in Sinclair Paints v. Board of Equalization (1997) 15  
          Cal.4th 866.  In that case, the Court found that a fee assessed  
          on paint manufacturers under the Childhood Lead Poisoning  
          Prevention Act of 1991 was properly a bona fide regulatory fee  
          designed to mitigate the effects of lead poisoning and not a  
          tax.  In order to be classified as a regulatory fee and not a  
          tax, the court held that the fee must not exceed the reasonable  
          cost of providing the services necessary for which the fee is  
          charged, and must not be levied for an unrelated revenue  
          purpose.   

          Following the first prong of the Sinclair Paints test, this bill  
          provides that fees from the program can only be used for  
          specific domestic violence programs.  Thus, the fees cannot  
          exceed the reasonable cost of the services for which the fee is  
          charged.  Moreover, there is no suggestion that the fees charged  
          are in excess of the cost of providing the specified services.

          Under the second prong of the Sinclair Paints test, the fee must  
          be levied for a related purpose.  Here, the nexus between the  
          fee and the services it funds is that domestic violence, which  
          occurs in families and cuts across all economic, educational,  
          age and ethnic lines, can result in injury or death of the  
          victims and is learned generationally.  Thus domestic violence  
          involves marriages, births, and deaths.  In support of a similar  
          bill for Alameda and Solano Counties, the Alameda County  
          District Attorney's Office very articulately stated the nexus  
          between the fee increase and domestic violence in a memo to the  
          Governor's Office:

               Without stopping violence in the home, we will never  
               stop violence in the community.  Without stopping  
               violence in the community, all citizens are potential  
               victims of that violence.

               The nexus between the special fee increase allowed  
               under [the original legislation] and  
               marriage-birth-fetal death and death certified  
               certificates cannot be ignored.  Statistically, the  
               most lethal times for a victim of domestic violence,  
               and children who witness that violence, a) is when she  
               is separating from the batterer; b) becomes pregnant;  








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               c) after children are born; and d) after getting  
               married.

          The fees in this bill, and the specific uses of those fees, are  
          also identical, or nearly identical, to those for the programs  
          in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties that the Legislature and  
          the Governor have made permanent.  (SB 968 (Torlakson), Chap.  
          635, Stats. 2006; AB 73 (Hayashi), Chap. 215, Stats. 2009.)

          The County Recorders Association of California opposes the bill  
          as well, writing that the fee in the bill "places [an] undue  
          additional financial burden on California citizens who purchase  
          certain vital record.  . . . The fee will not directly benefit  
          the individual purchasing the certified record."

           Pending Legislation Creating Domestic Violence Oversight Funding  
          Programs  :  AB 1883 (Evans) allows for the establishment of  
          similar domestic violence prevention funding pilot programs in  
          all counties.

          AB 2348 (Yamada) establishes a similar domestic violence  
          prevention funding pilot program in Yolo County.  Given AB 1883,  
          the author has decided not to move the bill at this time.

          SB 1222 (Wolk) extends the existing pilot program in Solano  
          County until January 1, 2014.

           Previous Legislation Creating Domestic Violence Oversight and  
          Coordination Funding Programs  :  SB 425 (Torlakson), Chap. 90,  
          Stats. 2001, established a similar domestic violence prevention  
          funding pilot program in Contra Costa County.  SB 968  
          (Torlakson), Chap. 635, Stats. 2006, repealed the sunset date,  
          making Contra Costa's program effective indefinitely.  

          AB 2010 (Hancock), Chap. 830, Stats. 2004, established the pilot  
          programs in Alameda County and Solano County.  AB 1712  
          (Hancock), Chap. 545, Stats. 2005, authorized the City of  
          Berkeley, within Alameda County, to also participate in the  
          pilot program.  AB 73 (Hayashi), Chap. 215, Stats. 2009,  
          repealed the sunset date, making Alameda's and Berkeley's  
          programs effective indefinitely.    

          SB 635 (Wiggins), Chap. 356, Stats. 2009, established a similar  
          pilot program for Sonoma County and extended the sunset for the  
          pilot program in Solano County until 2011.








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           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support  

          Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors

           Opposition 

           County Recorders Association of California
          Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :  Leora Gershenzon / JUD. / (916) 319-2334